JEWISH FEDERATION
Federation Star
July/August 2021
3
An update on the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center By Marc Saperstein, Building Committee Chair
F
irst, a special thank you to those of dollars, during this timeframe. In addiyou who have contributed to the tion, steel bar joists, which are critical Capital Campaign thus far as well structural elements of the building, are as those who have volunteered their time now delayed by about six months. to work on this important project for the We have been working through Greater Naples Jewish community. numerous value engineering options to It’s been a very challenging few reduce costs and find ways to address months, which has slowed our timing to the material availability issues, but obtain Collier County approval on our this inflationary pressure is expected site plan. I am pleased to say, however, to continue for another few months at that we have made good progress on the a minimum. issues confronting us. Temple Shalom’s very generous offer to Raising funds lease 4.3 acres of land for 50 years at Chai Regarding the Capital Campaign, we ($18/year) to Jewish Federation of Greater have made great progress. We have comNaples was the key to making the project mitments from over 330 families for $8.8 water management area means Temple on hold pending resolution of the water viable when we were unable to find land million toward our goal of $15 million. will not be able to expand to the east of management challenges. Since Temple FEDERATION OFroom GREATER NAPLES BUILDING COMMUNITY ROOM at an affordable price in Collier County. THE More than 1,500 donors participate in its JEWISH current sanctuary and social in and Federation have completely counterDespite this wonderful opportunity, we the Annual Community Campaign and the future. cyclical activities and parking needs, our have experienced some recent bumps in we are hopeful those who have not conThis was compounded by Temple request for this parking deviation was the road. tributed to the Capital Campaign thus W E G A N D ECollier S I G N County G R O U “rightP by Collier County in early June. having toMprovide approved far, will do so soon. of-way” land along the entire frontage of Increased water For the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural its property, without any compensation, Increasing costs management requirements for Pine Ridge Road to be expanded to We still have several hurdles left to over- Center to become a reality, it will require There was an increase in the water manthe approval of our final site and building six lanes in the future. come, including increasing project cost agement requirements to meet Collier plans by Collier County and continued After extensive discussions with our projections and achieving our Capital County regulations to offset needed financial support from the Greater Naples civil engineers, Temple’s consultants Campaign goal of $15 million dollars. changes to Pine Ridge Road, which was Jewish community. and leadership, we were able to address COVID-19 has resulted in significant driven by safety and traffic flow considIf you have questions about the projthese challenges. cost and supply availability challenges erations. Because there was insufficient ect, please email me, Marc Saperstein, because many suppliers, both in the U.S. space available on the far western tract at mjs0821@aol.com. To contribute to Parking requirements and globally, had to shut down their facof land, where our new building will be the Capital Campaign, you can contact Another significant challenge was Collier tories for a period of time. Steel is now in located, the additional space now required Marcy Friedland, capital campaign direcCounty’s parking requirements for the short supply, driving prices up. for water management retention had to tor at mfriedland@jewishnaples.org or combined campus. We had to request a Between March 24 and May 7, the be accommodated on Temple’s already 239-263-4205. parking deviation to move forward with cost of the project increased $6,000 per developed property. This additional We can’t do this without you! our proposed site plan. This had been day, or more than a quarter-of-a-million
